WASHINGTON – The financial services reform package that President Barack Obama will sign into law this week has a provision giving special treatment to the Farm Credit System, a group of banks and cooperatives that lend money to farmers and other rural Americans. Eleven are located in Texas.

The Farm Credit System will be allowed to keep its own personal regulator, the Farm Credit Administration. In contrast, all other mortgages and most other loans made in the United States will be regulated by a new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.